Get active, eat better, see pounds drop off

Judging by the reaction of some people I came across this week, it is worth mentioning that over the past nine months I have lost 28 pounds.

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By Donald W. Blount

recordnet.com

By Donald W. Blount

Posted Jan. 11, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By Donald W. Blount
Posted Jan. 11, 2014 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Judging by the reaction of some people I came across this week, it is worth mentioning that over the past nine months I have lost 28 pounds.

I will gladly say that for the past six weeks my weight has been at 168 pounds, a figure not reached since my college days more than 30 years ago.

I usually do not make resolutions for the new year. However, I did state that 2013 would be the year to get my health back.

Overall, I was healthy and active. I get to the gym regularly and bike for exercise. I figured the size that I was, not real big but not small, would be my natural size.

However, the thing that always nagged at me was my struggle to stay one step ahead of stress. Stress from work and other issues that many deal with.

And quite frankly, I wanted to improve at riding my bike up hills. The more you weigh, the more difficult it is to go up hill on a bike - gravity works against you. And my doctor, who also rides bikes, told me that quite frankly, that would be difficult to improve at 196 pounds.

Weight loss had never been easy for me. I have a body type that finds it easier to add muscle then to lose it. And slim genes do not run in my family.

When I was growing up, it seemed that my mother was always on a diet. Iceberg lettuce with tomatoes covered with French dressing was one of her staples. I have a sister and a brother, both of whom have had gastric bypass surgery.

But on April 15, I left my doctor's office determined to lose weight and keep it off.

And I got off to a decent start, losing 4 pounds in two weeks. Yet, I was not excited, because I had done that before.

And then a buddy announced that he had lost a whopping 74 pounds over two years. When I asked him how he accomplished that, he said it was actually what we had discussed some years earlier, through diet and exercise. He had bad eating habits and had become quite sedentary. He added that he used an app called myfitnesspal and that I should check it out.

So I did, and that changed everything for me. In short, it is a calorie-counting app and website that allows me to track the number of calories I eat and I burn throughout the day.

Although I ate fairly healthy, I learned that I was eating too much and was not as active as I thought.

So I changed my menu and became more consistent in keeping my body in motion, and the weight came off.

People have asked me what type of diet I have used, and I tell them that I did not diet at all. The problem with many diets is that it restricts you in some way that is not sustainable in the long term. When the diet ends, the dieter often goes back to old habits, and the weight creeps back on.

I have not really dieted but changed part of my lifestyle. As a result, my weight has adjusted to what feels like a more natural level. I have a larger and more varied menu to select from, but I eat fewer calories.

Truthfully, it has not always been easy. I prepare foods in advance, think about what I want to eat and make sure to exercise regularly and temper myself.

Fitness guru Jack LaLanne said that living was a pain in the keister. "You have to eat right and exercise."

And that is exactly what I have been doing.

And if I can do it, so can you.

Contact Donald W. Blount at (209) 546-8251 or dblount@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/editorblog and on Twitter @donblount.